Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²⁰ I have found David My servant; with My holy oil have I anointed him,^(A)

²¹ With whom My hand shall be established and ever abide; My arm also shall strengthen him.

²² The enemy shall not exact from him or do him violence or outwit him, nor shall the wicked afflict and humble him.

²³ I will beat down his foes before his face and smite those who hate him.

²⁴ My faithfulness and My mercy and loving-kindness shall be with him, and in My name shall his horn be exalted [great power and prosperity shall be conferred upon him].

²⁵ I will set his hand in control also on the [Mediterranean] Sea, and his right hand on the rivers [Euphrates with its tributaries].

²⁶ He shall cry to Me, You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation!

²⁷ Also I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.^(B)

²⁸ My mercy and loving-kindness will I keep for him forevermore, and My covenant shall stand fast and be faithful with him.

²⁹ His ^[a]Offspring also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.^(C)

³⁰ If his children forsake My law and walk not in My ordinances,

³¹ If they break or profane My statutes and keep not My commandments,

³² Then will I punish their transgression with the rod [of chastisement], and their iniquity with stripes.^(D)

³³ Nevertheless, My loving-kindness will I not break off from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail [to lie and be false to him].

³⁴ My covenant will I not break or profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.

³⁵ Once [for all] have I sworn by My holiness, which cannot be violated; I will not lie to David:

³⁶ His Offspring shall endure forever, and his throne [shall continue] as the sun before Me.^(E)

³⁷ It shall be established forever as the moon, the faithful witness in the heavens. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!^(F)

¹⁵ Three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam, and the army of the Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶ David was then in the stronghold, and the Philistines’ garrison was in Bethlehem.

¹⁷ And David longingly said, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!

¹⁸ Then the Three [mighty men] broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate and brought it to David. But David would not drink it; he poured it out to the Lord,

¹⁹ And said, My God forbid that I should do this thing. Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? For at the risk of their lives they brought it. So he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.

¹⁵ [Now] He is the ^[a]exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation.

¹⁶ For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.

¹⁷ And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together).^(A)

¹⁸ He also is the Head of [His] body, the church; seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the chief place [stand first and be preeminent].

¹⁹ For it has pleased [the Father] that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers, and attributes) should dwell in Him ^[b]permanently.

²⁰ And God purposed that through (^[c]by the service, the intervention of) Him [the Son] all things should be completely reconciled ^[d]back to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, as through Him, [the Father] made peace by means of the blood of His cross.

²¹ And although you at one time were estranged and alienated from Him and were of hostile attitude of mind in your wicked activities,

²² Yet now has [Christ, the Messiah] reconciled [you to God] in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His [the Father’s] presence.

²³ [And this He will do] provided that you continue to ^[e]stay with and in the faith [in Christ], well-grounded and settled and steadfast, not shifting or moving away from the hope [which rests on and is inspired by] the glad tidings (the Gospel), which you heard and which has been preached ^[f][as being designed for and offered without restrictions] to every person under heaven, and of which [Gospel] I, Paul, became a minister.